In the Hauts-de-France, at the Château d’Hardelot, the illustrator stages his universe with tales.
At the foot of the castle of Hardelot extends a garden where stand tiny trees. In the middle of the grass, a honey-blonde Alice welcomes the visitor, a white rabbit in her arms. Lewis Carroll’s heroine escaped from her novel for a few months, in Hauts-de-France, for the exhibition “Le Victorien”, by Benjamin Lacombe, who notably redesigned the work of the Briton. The illustrator, one of the leading representatives of new French illustration, does not hide his joy. “The castle inspired me a lot. It looks huge but it has the dimensions of a mansion. Its gardens are mini-mazes. We are in a game of ladder.
As with Alice, reality eludes the visitor. The 19th century neo-Gothic castlee century was built on the ruins of a castle, was destroyed in the heart of power struggles before being reborn in a neo-Tudor style and becoming a social place. Today, the cultural center offers a journey through time, between its “English-style” smoking room…